According to TheWall Street Journal, only those responding to medical needs will be able to enter or exit the two most devastated districts in Sierra Leone. The roads are blocked by soldiers. The president of Liberia has declared a state of emergency, and eight highly affected districts will have checkpoints putin.

“People believe that there’s a giant World Health Organization office in Geneva stocked full of specialized equipment and talented health care workers,” said Laurie Garrett of the Council on Foreign Relations. “Not only do we not have any such thing — the WHO is essentiallybankrupt.”

Relatives may have extensive contact with an infected person before he or she dies, or they may help prepare the body for burial. Funeral traditions in Africa frequently involve washing the body before it is buried, which can mean contact with blood and other infectious bodily fluids. Public health workers haven’t been able to curtail this traditional practice; it’s a challenge that puts religious and cultural beliefs in direct conflict with infection control. Moreover, this is the first time that this part of Africa has experienced an Ebola outbreak, so there is no collective memory of what to do to stop thevirus.

Checkpoints and armed guards won’t be able to change these practices, either. But they may just help stop thespread.